The scope of the pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses across America is as threatening as it is impressive. And Jewish students on campus are in the crosshairs.
What began as largely peaceful — albeit morally troubling — demonstrations in support of the Hamas terrorists expanded to include opposition to Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza and support of Palestinian civilians who are victims of the Gaza war.
That effort has now morphed into a full-blown attack on Jews with an array of antisemitic slogans, chants and old-fashioned Jew-baiting and cursing; the promotion of the delegitimization and destruction of the world’s newest colonializing power known as the state of Israel; major disruptions in cities across America; and an explosion of demonstrations on university campuses across the country.
The expansion of demonstrations on campuses was not organic. It was unquestionably orchestrated, complete with the provision by third-party organizers of signs, masks, keffiyehs and the latest “demonstration-necessity” — tents to build a tent city.
Local governments and their police departments have experience dealing with crowd control issues and disruptive public behavior. They also have the resources to address threats of violence and actual violence, whether it springs up randomly or is promoted in the pursuit of a hate-based agenda. But college campuses are different. Most are private institutions that have their own campus police, who need to turn to local law enforcement teams to assist with larger uprisings or other security challenges.
On many college campuses, demonstrators and their organizers argue that, in the name of academic freedom and the free pursuit of ideas, their voices of protest should be protected and their hateful speech respected. They hide their hate behind what they believe to be an absolute right to free speech. In their view, they should be able to say anything they want, to anyone they want, from anywhere they choose. And they argue that any effort to interfere with those rights is wholly un-American and in violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution. They are wrong.
Nothing in the Constitution gives demonstrators the right to trespass on private property, endanger the safety of others, disrupt the orderly functioning of a university or threaten or intimidate students on their way to class or some other campus function. And nothing in the Constitution gives any student (or outside agitator who joins with students for a demonstration) the right to attack anyone for any reason.
If university leadership is serious about protecting all students on campus, they need to protect all students, including the Jewish ones. In doing so, there must be a single standard for policy enforcement, with appropriate punishment for violators, including expulsion and referral to law enforcement. Antisemitic behavior, acts of Jew-hatred and the harassment of Jews need to be treated exactly the same as racial hatred and harassment or any other wholly unacceptable discriminatory conduct.
It certainly costs enough for our kids to go to college. Their universities have the responsibility to provide them with a higher education in a safe and secure environment. That is not asking too much.